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Murder trial is adjourned           22/5/13

The trial of two Lewis men accused of murder has been adjourned until tomorrow.  No evidence was given today at Glasgow High Court as the jury was down by one person.

Judge Lord Kinclaven said one juror was absent due to a health issue.

The trial is expected to resume tomorrow (Thurs).

Johnathan Mackinnon and Stefan Millar both deny murdering Liam Aitchison on 23 November 2011, at an address in Steinish, Lewis.

It is alleged the 16-year-old, who was from Lochboisdale, South Uist, was hit on the head and body with a knife and bottle and was kicked and stamped on his head.

Earlier this week, the trial heard from police officers who had interviewed Mackinnon and Millar after the boy’s body was discovered in a derelict house in Steinish on the outskirts of Stornoway in 2011.

During an interview to police Johnathan Mackinnon had said the three men had been at Pemma Maclennan’s house earlier on the evening of  22nd  November that year. He said he left and went to his own home. Later, his girlfriend and her friend arrived at his house.

In the interview, Mackinnon had told police that he had cut his hand - he had said he had a knife as well as a meat cleaver in his bedroom upstairs.  He had indicated the three men - Jonathan Mackinnon, Stefan Millar and Liam Aitchison - were drinking in his room in Plasterfield and, at one time, Liam attempted to jump out of a window.

Mackinnon’s had also told police the three of them left his house around half past midnight to go to a rundown house across the road from the Cabarfeidh Hotel in Willowglen, Stornoway.

In his interview, Mackinnon had told police that he accused Liam of being a thief and throwing a punch at him after a bottle of aftershave had fallen out of Liam’s pocket. They soon parted and Mackinnon had told police he last saw Liam heading to Pemma Maclennan’s house.

In the 2011 interview, Mackinnon had told police it was two years since he was last in the derelict house in Steinish and he was not aware if Liam knew about the property.

Also this week, the court heard that, in December 2011, Stefan Millar told police in an interview that the three men left Mackinnon’s house in Plasterfield and then Liam went off to go to a friend’s house.

Later, Millar and Mackinnon returned to Mackinnon’s house, he had told police.

When quizzed in the police interview at the time, Millar told police he had no involvement in Liam’s death and that he did not know what they were talking about .

In the police interview, he challenged a claim that he hit Liam on the head with a bottle. He said it was untrue.

The trial also previously heard that there was a CCTV clip of Liam at the Stornoway Co-op supermarket on November 22nd 2011 but no other footage of the youth from other CCTV cameras.

Last week, a crime scene examiner described the scene where Liam’s partially-clothed body was found within the abandoned building as the most "horrendous" she had attended.

The court also previously heard the teenager's body was found near to a window in a blood-stained room wearing only a T-shirt, underpants and socks.

A police forensic scientist had previously told the trial that most of the blood in the room matched Liam’s.

She said some drops of blood on a carpet in the room matched Johnathan Mackinnon’s. She agreed that it was possible that the spots of blood could have been caused by bleeding from a cut hand. The scientist said it was impossible to measure the age of blood stains so it was unknown when the blood matching Mackinnon’s was left there.

Johnathan Mackinnon and Stefan Millar deny murder. The trial continues tomorrow.